A variety of inflated cushions are well known and used for sundry packaging applications. For example, inflated cushions are often used as void-fill packaging in a manner similar to or in place of foam peanuts, crumpled paper, and similar products. Also for example, inflated cushions are often used as protective packaging in place of molded or extruded packaging components. Generally, inflated cushions are formed from films having two plies that are joined together by seals. The seals can be formed simultaneously with inflation, so as to capture air therein, or prior to inflation to define a film configuration having inflatable chambers. The inflatable chambers can be inflated with air or another gas and thereafter sealed to inhibit or prevent release of the air or gas.
Typically inflation and sealing devices have a single set orientation that allows them to process material in a certain way relative to their support surface. For example, the inflation and sealing devices have material that rolls off of a spindle and then exits the machine in one way, generally parallel to the support surface. Such a construction limits the available locations that the inflation and sealing devices can be used due to obstructions or ergonomics that make single orientation insufficient. These shortcomings also extend to the relationship between the inflation sealing devices and their control interfaces. For example, there are typically two orientations of inflation and sealing devices that are used in the industry. In one orientation the control interface is located perpendicular to the material flow and in the other orientation the control interface is located parallel to material flow. On a perpendicular control interface machine, the controls are facing the operator, right where the material exits the machine. Other machines have the controls parallel to material flow. Unless the machine is on the corner of a table, the controls have inferior accessibility. While material may exit different machines in a verity of manners, each machine is limited to its orientation of processing. As such, it may be desirable to provide a more universal inflation and sealing device with multiple usable orientations.